1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to electricity generators deriving power from the chest motion of a human being.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a result of recent advances in the fields of medicine and electronic circuitry, a demand has arisen for a self-contained low-power electric generating device. Such a device today finds considerable application for any one of a number of body-attached mechanisms which use electric power. For example, cardiac pacemakers, electronic watches, hearing aids, and the like are all generally powered by small batteries. In the past, these batteries have usually been non-rechargeable, therefore requiring periodic replacement. Replacement of these batteries, however, is at best inconvenient, and in the case of cardiac pacemakers involves serious surgery. Accordingly, at least as far as cardiac pacemakers are concerned, the trend has been to provide chargeable batteries in conjunction with battery-charging means as the energy source for the pacemaker.
One such self-powered pacemaker, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,936 to Rasor et al, discloses a self-powered pacemaker device energized by a nucleonic battery in conjunction with a battery-charging device. This device is implanted into the heart ventricle, whereby the battery charger derives its power from movement of the heart. While this device may be satisfactory for its intended application, it can only be implanted or replaced by major open heart surgery, and therefore entails considerable risk. Furthermore, because of its unique implanting arrangement, this self-powered pacer is subject to reduced power output requirements to reliably produce consistent pacing. As a result, its potential power capacity would be insufficient for other electrical power applications.
While chest motion electrical generators have been known in the prior art, these generators have been used merely to monitor respiratory movements. Examples of these devices are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,268,845 and 3,782,368. In view of the respiratory transducers disclosed in these patents, energy is consumed instead of generated, and these devices find no application as battery charging devices.